BUCHANAN IS CONFIDENT HEADING INTO BIG RUIDOSO RACES

COURTESY OF AQHA RACING.COM

BUCHANAN IS CONFIDENT HEADING INTO BIG RUIDOSO RACES

August 31, 2007 – No other trainer has more horses in Ruidoso Downs’ two biggest races this weekend than John Buchanan, who qualified three runners to Sunday’s $504,693 All American Derby (G1) and one for Monday’s $1.9-million All American Futurity (G1).

Buchanan’s Derby charge is led by second-fastest qualifier Dont Let Down, who was third in last year’s All American Futurity and went on to win the Dash For Cash Futurity (G1) at Lone Star Park. The Stoli gelding, who was second in the Heritage Place Derby (G2) at Remington Park in June, will be joined by two other horses with big-race experience, Hiclass La Jolla and Ivory James.

“They’re just perfect little racehorses,” Buchanan said of the trio. “We’d look terrible if we didn’t get one or two of them (in the final). They’re such good horses, and they’re doing good. They love it up here.”

Juan Vazquez was aboard each of Buchanan’s Derby qualifiers and chose to ride Dont Let Down in the final.

“I think he had to ride that horse,” Buchanan said about Vazquez, who has ridden for the trainer for 10 years. “That horse (Dont Let Down) hardly ever makes a mistake. If you can outrun him, it’s just because you’re faster. He doesn’t cause any problems. He just gets better all the time. The older he gets, the better he gets because he’s just so big.

“We don’t tell (Vazquez) who to ride, but that was a very smart decision to ride that horse,” he added.

Larry Payne will be aboard Hiclass La Jolla, and Alex Baldillez will ride Ivory James.

Dont Let Down is a homebred racing for Bobby D. Cox, who owns Ivory James in partnership with Sylvia Shaw Pitman. Buchanan has trained for Cox, the 2004 AQHA Champion Owner, since the early 1990s. He has known Pitman’s family even longer, since 1977 when he first began training horses in Florida for Pitman, her mother, Pheenix Shaw, and her brother, John Shaw Jr.

Hiclass La Jolla races for Robert and Karen Nunnally, for whom Buchanan has trained the past several years.

Buchanan’s Futurity qualifier is Cox’s homebred Coronas Fast Dash, who will bid to become the trainer’s second All American winner. Twenty years ago, Buchanan was at Ruidoso for the first time with a 2-year-old filly who had proven fast enough to earn a shot at the track’s rich futurities. She was Elans Special, a daughter of Special Effort who was bred and owned by Florida resident Lindsey D. Burbank. That summer, the filly was eighth in the Kansas Futurity (G1) and third in the Rainbow Futurity (G1) before winning the All American with Baldillez aboard.

Coronas Fast Dash, who is from the family of all-time leading sire First Down Dash, qualified to the All American when he won the 12th of 18 trials by two lengths to score his first win in four starts. He is the fourth-fastest qualifier with a time of :21.183.

Heading into Monday’s race, Buchanan isn’t scared of taking on the two All American opponents who are receiving the most attention, the Grade 1-winning fillies Wild Six and Heartswideopen, with his improving colt.

“He really likes horse racing right now, and that means a lot,” Buchanan said about Coronas Fast Dash. “I’d like to own one of those fillies, but I wouldn’t swap him for the fillies.” By Amy Owens